Currently, some financial transactions, for example, transactions in foreign exchange, are performed person-to-person (e.g., over the telephone or in person). That is, a trader contacts a broker with a proposed transaction, the broker prices the transaction and, if the trader agrees, the transaction is executed. If the trader wants to record the transaction, he or she enters the transaction into a financial spread sheet or database (herein referred to as “treasury system”). It is clear that many errors may enter into this system: the broker may enter the wrong data, the user may enter the wrong data or both, resulting in, at best, conflicting information between the two. To alleviate this situation, financial transactions are increasingly becoming automated: the trader enters a transaction into his or her system, which is then executed by a serving financial institution.
There exists, however, a tension between facilitating financial transactions automatically and executing financial transactions over the telephone or in person. Automatic transactions captures data regarding the transaction exactly as the trader enters it. The transaction is then executed using the captured data. There is no person in the middle that can potentially make errors in recording a transaction. On the other hand, there is no personal interaction with a sales or marketing person at a financial institution, which provides the customer with advice and the financial institution with customer loyalty.